Flying down from LaGuardia to Miami for the 12th annual South Beach Wine and Food Festival, chef John DeLucie coincidentally sat next to his old boss Jonathan Waxman.

“We talked and laughed for a few minutes and then Jonathan put on his headphones,” DeLucie recounted, just a few hours before the food fest’s opening-night event, Moët Hennessy’s the Q, which featured more than 40 of the world’s greatest chefs grilling everything from antelope to pork cheeks to beef hearts on the Delano’s beach. “Jonathan turned his music on, and that was the end of talking.”

Waxman still had the beat that night, operating out of a booth near the big stage where a funk band blasted away. He blissfully bopped to the music and sliced his way through a whole New York strip. Conversely, Harold Dieterle, frying chicken nearby, said that the sounds were more annoyance than inspiration. Maybe Waxman knew something: He was crowned Kingsford Charcoal King of the Q.

Arguably, though, the real winners this past weekend were some of Miami’s newer and lower-key eateries, which benefited from national exposure. The great Peruvian-inspired Jean Paul’s House dazzled at the Fontainebleau’s Best of the Best event, with crispy pork belly braised in grapes and Pisco 100. Two-month-old Northern Thai specialist Khong River House attracted no less a force than superstar restaurateur Danny Meyer. He told the chefs to keep sending out their finest and tweeted a photo of an enormous pig leg.

The festival has become influential enough that Richard Sandoval, who recently opened Miami’s Toro Toro, cut short a Dubai business trip and barbecued brisket at the Eden Roc pool. Paparazzi stalked “Top Chef” stars near the beach. And many New York chefs absconded from their kitchens. Daniel Boulud nipped down to cook langoustines for a scrumptious tribute dinner honoring Nobu Matsuhisa and Christophe Navarre at the Loews — maybe it was to make up for the time at the Dead Sea when Boulud snuck up on Matsuhisa and jammed fistfuls of black mud inside his shorts. Andrew Carmellini spent at least one late night cuddling up with a bottle of Pappy Van Winkle at the hot Broken Shaker outdoor bar, where he maintains a 99-and-1 table-tennis record. According to Jon Shook of LA’s Animal, you can’t go wrong at the James Beard Award-nominated Shaker when you’re sipping bar-maestro Elad Zvi’s Cocoa Puffs-infused bourbon.

An after-party co-hosted by José Andrés at the SLS South Beach went off without a hitch, until Guy Fieri showed up at 2 a.m. “He walked in with 10 bodyguards and all kinds of people you find in the street,” sniffed Andrés. “I tried to say hello to him, but maybe I’m not on TV enough. He didn’t know who I was, and I thought his bodyguards would drive me onto the ground.”

The next morning, no worse for wear, Andrés merrily hit golf balls at a Turnberry Isle charity tournament where he smoked an 8 a.m. cigar, double-fisted champagne glasses and mused, “I can’t believe I do this for a living.” Edward Lee, of Louisville’s lauded 610 Magnolia, might have had similar thoughts at the Let’s Get Spiked! Chef Volleyball Tournament (held on the James Royal Palm’s beach) as he squeezed into a pair of booty shorts, emblazoned with “I’m in Miami Bitch” across the back. As game-time approached, Jeff Mauro, host of the Food Network’s “Sandwich King,” quietly confessed to being off bread for the moment and more loudly announced a fear that a chef would end up in a body-cast after the volleyball match.

A quick scan of the jam-packed, Saturday-night bash put on by the Cosmopolitan of Las Vegas at Estiatorio Milos lent the impression that there were no injuries sustained on the sandy court, but overstuffed bellies and alcohol-sopped brains were everywhere.